Savage River Lodge
Our three days at the Savage River Lodge were just awesome. The cabin was really nice and extremely comfortable. There were no TVs or radios, and it was very quiet and peaceful. We had the morning paper and juice and muffins delivered to our door each morning, and we ate gourmet meals in the lodge each night. It is really a beautiful place. We had deer walk by our cabin during the late afternoons. On our drives through the mountains, we saw some beautiful scenery, all draped in peak fall colors. When we were driving through the mountains on our way back from the Savage River, we had a very large black bear run across the road right in front of the truck. What a bonus! Both days we fished were beautiful fall days with perfect weather and great fishing. Shelley got out on the trout streams with her fly rod for the first time, and I had a great time playing guide.

Casselman River
We fished the Casselman on Monday for a few hours. We didn't see another angler all day. The river was very low, so we had to move to deeper pools and riffles before we located some fish. There were lots of rainbows and some browns in the deeper water. Shelley fished a caddis with a beadhead Copper John dropper and hooked several rainbows on the nymph. She landed quite a few fish - her first trout on a fly rod. We saw some larger fish in another pool and Shelley quickly got the big fish fever. We focused on the biggest fish, which looked to be at least 16 inches - a nice plump rainbow. He refused to look up at a dry fly, so after trying ants, caddis, and olives on the surface, we tied on a dark green caddis larva with a beadhead to get it down to the fish. Shelley got the fly down to him, and he jumped on it. She hooked him and held on as he ran down-river about 50 or 60 feet, then turned and ran back up at us, and then turned and ran down another 60 feet again! The fish leaped and splashed, and looked to be a nice thick rainbow of about 16 to 17 inches. Shelley did a great job holding on, but the trout eventually spit out her fly. After that, she took a break and let me fish a bit. I landed a few rainbows and browns, and lost a couple of nice fish as well. We managed to get a quick photo of one of the larger browns. It was a beautiful day on the river, with awesome fall colors and excellent fishing.

Savage River
On Tuesday, we headed for the lower Savage River tailwater section to fish for wild trout. The river was flowing at about 60 to 70 CFS, which is much lower than I have fished it before. This made for easier wading and water temps in the low 60s. This is a great time to fish the Savage. I picked up a beautiful wild brookie and a really nice dark brown in the very first spot we fished. Shelley got a quick couple of photos of the brown trout. I had good luck with a flying ant pattern all day, and Shelley had good results with a caddis and also an olive. We fished dry flies all day. Shelley had a nice wild brown take her fly about three times but just missed setting the hook. She did a great job on her first quest for wild trout, landing a nice wild brookie, which was one of the prettiest brook trout I have ever seen. After Shelley had finished up, I moved up-river and fished a bit more. I missed some fish and lost another, but I was able to land a few more nice browns. We fished a section of river that I like to fish and had it all to ourselves. We saw only one other angler all day, and he was upstream from where we finished up. The Savage continues to be one of my favorite rivers to fish.

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